Episode 19 Homes Under the Hammer

Hello, and welcome to the show.

Now, auction properties come in all shapes and sizes, from one-bedroom

flats to country castles, though not this one, I hasten to add.

Now, you may not be in the market for a castle,

but just looking for something with a bit of character.

Absolutely, so why not why not start with a property

auction on Homes Under The Hammer?

I just love meeting people on Homes Under The Hammer,

because everybody's got so much enthusiasm.

Yeah, it's great, especially when people take on a real challenge.

So let's see what today's enthusiasts have got up to.

Are you looking to expand?

This two-bed semi in Nottingham may be ideal.

That's a lot of space.

I'm excited already!

Or, does the high life appeal?

This top-floor flat in Portsmouth fits the bill.

You can even see the Isle of Wight out there!

And, if it's original features you're after,

this Crewe property offers plenty.

Probably one of the earliest electric showers.

I wouldn't necessarily want to turn it on and then get in the shower.

Bzzk!

All these properties have been sold at auction.

We'll find out who bought them, what they paid for them,

when they went under the hammer.

You bought it, sir, well done.

Basford is a suburb of Nottingham,

and once was home to a soap factory dating from the 1890s.

And, while the factory closed in 2005, the area still scrubs up well,

with excellent transport links via road and tram to the city centre.

Just two miles away from the centre of Nottingham,

and just half a mile away to the nearest tram stop,

is the property I'm here to see, on this busy and noisy road.

It's a two-bed detached property,

with a guide price of £80,000. Let's take a look.

A detached property with off-street parking? Looking good already.

OK, very warm, welcoming feeling as you come in.

Central heating here, which is good. I like that.

And I haven't seen these for some time - polystyrene tiles.

Small front room here, but a really big window

bringing lots of light in, which is fantastic.

Through into the kitchen,

which, to me, looks new, or relatively new.

It's not my style, but you can actually come in here straightaway.

Totally liveable at the moment, totally liveable,

and I like what I'm seeing.

Let's see what else we can find.

Into the dining room, then. It's a decent-sized dining room.

I do like that window. It's huge, bringing lots of light in.

You've got a fireplace here.

Again, it's all in good condition so far, this house.

But my eye's drawn to this wall here. Now, it's...

This will be a load-bearing wall, for sure,

so you could get a builder in to have a look at that for you if you

were thinking about opening it up, because modern day fashion is

having a dining room and a kitchen connected.

That's my kind of style.

My kind of style is also houses in good order, which this is,

despite the fire hazard of the polystyrene tiles,

but so far, so good. So many options.

OK, upstairs.

First thing you can see is this big cupboard, which is

storage space, shelving.

More storage space in there, a big storage cupboard,

so you could actually get rid of this one,

and open up the landing, give yourself a bit more space.

Big bedroom there, big double bedroom there, lots of light.

Lovely, in great condition, bathroom,

with a nice big corner bath.

Very nice, I like that.

Into the second bedroom, more space, or should I say more hanging space?

Wardrobe space, there. This property is in really good condition.

Double-glazed windows look like they've just been put in,

and in good working order,

overlooking a garden, which I wasn't expecting.

It's a large garden.

I think I'm going to investigate that just a little bit further.

Come with me.

Give me a minute to get down the stairs, though,

I'm not as fit as I used to be.

I've spotted something outside, which may be of interest.

This back garden is huge. Goes back a long way.

Lots of space, nice and wide,

but what I have noticed there's a single-storey extension there, but,

even better, there's a double-storey extension on that side.

Now, I'm getting quite excited, because

why not do the same? They've set a precedent there.

Bring it out, you could have a large kitchen-dining room,

you could have another bedroom, an even bigger bathroom,

maybe even a couple of en-suites as well,

but that's a lot of space, and a lot of addition to this house.

I'm excited already!

Extensions are expensive, but can add value. Worth it?

Who better to ask than an agent from the auction house who sold

this property, which was guided at £80,000.

Subject to appropriate planning consent,

I could see this being extended at the back.

You've got a large garden, you've got plenty of scope there to extend.

I could see this being converted into a four-bedroom detached

property, with a larger living quarter,

maybe a dining kitchen, and you've got four bedrooms,

so it would become a good family residence.

We are on the same page here, me and the agent.

Extension and a kitchen-diner, but how much would the extension cost?

With regards to the extension,

I see builders quoting within the region of around £25,000 - £30,000.

All right, comparison time -

what is the property worth in its current layout?

I could see this on the market within

the region of around £115,000.

Rental-wise, I see this achieving £550 per calendar month.

And if the property were extended?

I see this property, once it's been extended

to a three/four-bedroom detached property, in good order,

I see this selling within the region of around £150,000.

Again, if it's been extended to three/four bedrooms,

in good order, I see this on the rental market

somewhere in the region of around £800-£850 per calendar month.

Well, there could be a healthy profit in there, but as always,

everything hinges on how far off the guide price of £80,000 it sells for.

Its good condition could make for some fierce competition.

What can I say? What a house, what a garden, and what potential.

Let's see who saw this great opportunity when it went to auction.

We're back in the catalogue at lot number eight. The guide is 80-plus.

Start me at £80,000. It's well worth all of that. £80,000 for it?

78? Thank you. 78, I've taken. 79.

80,000. 81.

82.

It's no surprise that this lot was keenly contested, and we rejoin

the auction as it approaches climax, with a price of £103,000.

Yes or no? 103. Used to be indecisive, but now he's not sure.

LAUGHTER

103 and a half, 104.

104 and a half. 105.

105 and a half.

106,000 is bid. £106,000, the bid's nearer to me.

And a half. 107.

£107,000 once...

..twice, third opportunity...

Sold at 107,000. Thank you.

Bobby here in the middle is a doctor,

and the one who has just paid 27 grand over the guide price.

They do say doctors are getting younger these days,

and looking at Bobby, I'd have to agree.

# Oh, Mr Medicine, I'm so happy you came here. #

Well, I'm glad this medicine man has the time to give us his

prescription for this house, which is already in pretty good health.

Bobby, nice to meet you. Congratulations.

-Thank you very much.

-First thing I've got to say - incredibly smart.

-Oh, that's very kind of you.

-I like that. I like that.

-That's kind.

Tell us about the auction experience for you, pal.

OK, well, that was our first auction,

and I went along with my practice manager,

who also knows nothing about auctions,

-and a couple of right-hand men, one of whom's a builder...

-Yep.

..who'd seen the property before we went to the auction,

and we were quite laid-back in the auction.

Quite early on, we realised that the bidding had slowed down,

so there was a chance that we could actually get

the property for what we wanted.

Now, did your right-hand men, were they helping you?

-Nudging you along?

-Well, I was almost falling asleep.

-This is not a joke.

-How cool!

I got a nudge. I got a nudge from the guys. "Better put a bid in."

So that's what we did.

I'm not qualified to diagnose sleep problems, but you are pretty

relaxed if you can grab 40 winks in an auction environment.

Thankfully, Bobby is wide awake to this property's potential,

and what he's going to do with it.

So we've applied for planning permission,

and we're thinking if we can convert the two-bedroomed

property into a four, because there's some space at the back...

OK, so that's extending out the back of the kitchen and the dining room?

Yes. And other people on the road have done extensions as well,

so we're quite confident we'd get the planning permission.

The kitchen's going to be extended...

-Yep.

-..out that way, so it's actually quite a big room.

-Yep.

And I think he's talking about making a downstairs toilet as well.

-Nice.

-And then upstairs, there'll be scope to get rid of the bathroom,

convert that into another bedroom, and then have another one,

so it'll be like a double-storey extension.

-One of the bedrooms, I imagine, will have

-an en-suite? That's right.

Yeah. And then another bedroom going out as well. It's our first project,

so we're really just going to roll the dice and see what happens.

Fantastic.

Bobby's builder, Carl, will be busy.

Apart from the extension, the outside will get attention too,

including the garden, driveway, and re-rendering the exterior walls.

Bobby's right-hand man, Phil, will also be working across the

project, while Bobby keeps busy running his three private clinics.

So, what's the budget?

We might spend £40,000 or £50,000 on the property,

and then we'll see where it goes from there.

It's quite a lot, isn't it, really? You could get a lot done for that.

Yeah, and we've got the manpower, you see. Most people are limited by

the builders, but we've got a team here who work with me

at the clinics that I run, so they're already on board.

OK. So you know them already, you know what they're capable of.

Very trustworthy, very honest people,

and I think that's the strength of the project.

And how long are you hoping for that to take?

Well, these guys are quick, so we're thinking six months.

-Maybe even quicker.

-They ARE good!

-Yeah!

-The planning permission takes six to eight weeks...

-Yeah.

..and I think he's saying that,

a couple of months after that, he should be done.

# Trust me, trust me, I'm a doctor

# I know, I know, what I'm doing

# I know, I know, what I'm doing, girl. #

But Bobby isn't the only doctor in the house.

I also hold a doctorate - I do, I promise you. Newman University.

It's Doctor of Law, I think you'll find.

You don't have to be that smart to spot that Bobby

is in danger of overspending on this project.

If he spends £50,000, on top of that 107 grand,

he'll be £7,000 over the agent's valuation of an extended property.

What does he hope this project will achieve for him?

This might be a nice little project in the background,

which could act as a pension, maybe, one day.

I'm guessing that you being a doctor and me

being a doctor are very different.

-Are you a doctor?

-I was given mine, and you've sort of worked at yours.

-Oh, I see.

-Not quite the same.

-Well, you're probably a real doctor, then.

-I'm just someone who went to university.

-A doctorate.

-Yeah. A doctorate.

-That's as far as I'll go. Bobby, good luck.

-Nice to meet you.

-Thank you very much, and likewise.

I think busy man Bobby has fallen on his feet here.

This is a gem of a house. He's got his right-hand men to help him out.

If they're as good as he says they are, when this is finished,

it's going to look amazing.

You can find out how he gets on later in the programme.

# Round, round, get around, I get around

# Yeah, get around, woo woo, I get around

# Get around, round round... #

In all my travels around the country,

there's nothing I like better than a trip to the seaside,

and today I'm in Portsmouth, spiritual home to the Royal Navy.

Portsmouth is the only city in England with a greater

population density than London, and demand is on the rise.

Now, property prices in this area have gone up 10% in the last

six months, and who can blame them?

You're just a short walk from the beach,

surrounded by the amenities of a town, and still part of a city.

All sounds good?

So let's see if this two-bed flat, with a guide price

of £80,000-plus, can tempt me up three flights of stairs.

And breathe.

Now, I like to think of myself as a fit person,

but after climbing all those stairs, I don't think I am.

Right, so there you have it.

You've got to negotiate three flights of stairs

before you've even got in the front door.

Luckily, you've got an intercom system here, which you will need,

let me tell you. But the flat is in really good condition.

Not what I was expecting at all.

It's got a great feel to the place. Very contemporary.

Nice floors, not a bad kitchen.

It's the sort of room that you'll have as a kitchen, a dining area,

maybe a little sofa in the corner,

so it combines all three of those uses,

and, erm... I'm still out of breath.

Come over here, look, you can see all across the rooftops, and if you

look right on beyond, you can even see the Isle of Wight out there.

It's a great flat,

but people with a fear of heights maybe need not apply.

# I'll be back in the high life again

# All the doors I closed one time will open up again. #

If height doesn't bother you, what about the noise?

The two double bedrooms overlook the busy street below,

so it might not be the most peaceful sleep in Portsmouth,

and let's not forget our feathered friends, who roost on any

available roof space, and don't mind who knows about it.

Now, talking of roofs...

This top-floor flat is under what is known as a mansard roof,

which is basically a roof that has steep sloping sides on all ends.

Now, it's a really practical way of getting living space into what

is effectively an attic,

so you don't have that feeling of low, sloping ceilings in here

- look, it's quite high -

but you are still just a short distance from the outside world

out there, so making sure you're watertight should be your priority.

I'm not sure this roof passes that test, though.

Well, it's certainly not the dirty bath that's bothering me in here,

it's what's lurking up in that corner.

Now, it's obvious there's been some rainwater coming in,

maybe a few of the tiles are loose, but whoever is looking

at buying a property like this should investigate that further.

You walk in here, and the smell is pungent, it's damp, you can

see streaks of rainwater in the corner over there,

and also, this wall is slightly wonky.

It does often make me think,

"Why did a property like this end up in the auction in the first place?"

That's a question you've got to ask yourself.

And, while you ponder that, it'll give a local property expert time

to climb those stairs in order to give us

his opinion on this top-floor offering.

The real selling features of this property is its location.

It's very close to bus routes, to shops, to bars, to cafes,

and also the seafront's only a short walk away.

Negatives -you do have some bars just around the corner which

do turn into nightclubs,

but, yeah, generally there's a lot more positives than negatives.

Well, I can think of some people who consider

bars on their doorstep to be a right bonus. I'm talking about you, Dion.

Anyway, if the roof issue was resolved and the interior given

a bit of a polish, what could this flat - with a guide price of £80,000

- do in the buoyant Portsmouth property market?

Once up, I would expect it to achieve £125,000.

Portsmouth's very popular for renters.

I would expect to achieve roundabouts £700 per calendar month.

Well, a small, if slightly leaky, top-floor flat.

The stairs and main road, they might not be for everyone,

but so close to the beach and in a very promising area,

right on the high street, and it seems property prices on the rise.

Could it be a great buy?

Well, let's see who grabbed it when it went under the hammer.

Onto lot 314, a self-contained third-floor flat.

Two-bedroom accommodation.

Start me at £70,000.

Thank you. 70 I have. 71?

71, in the doorway, thank you. 72. 73

74.

There were a few people keen on this property,

and bidding kept going at a steady pace.

We rejoin with the price standing at £95,000.

95, 96.

97. 98. 99.

100. 101. 102?

101. Lady's bid.

102, anywhere else?

First time at 101...

second time at 101...

the third and final time at 101,000, lady's bid, on my right...

-GAVEL BANGS

-Sold at 101.

It was full-time mum, Fay, who made that successful bid of £101,000.

Fay and her family live not far outside Portsmouth,

and although she wouldn't claim to be clairvoyant,

when she saw this fat online, she definitely got more than a feeling.

# It's more than a feeling (more than a feeling)

# When I hear that old song... #

-Fay, congratulations.

-Thank you.

So, what's the story behind you finding this flat?

-Well, I've been watching auctions for a long time.

-Yeah.

Not many places come up in this area, and this one did,

and even though we'd viewed it,

we were a bit put off by how far up it was, replacing everything,

and we thought, "No, we'll leave it,"

but then on the morning of the auction,

I was watching it online, and I just had a feeling,

"This is going to go for a good price, and I can't miss it."

-So you only decided on the day...

-To buy it, yeah.

-At what time?

Er, this was about... Probably about midday.

I'd worked out how many lots were selling, per hour, roughly.

Unfortunately, they were going a bit slower in the morning,

so in the afternoon it sped up, and...

Got to Reading station, and thought, "Not going to make this,"

cos my husband texted me and said, "It's on lot 294 already,"

or something, and I was like, "Really not going to make this,"

and yeah, I literally got to Oxford Circus Tube station, and they'd

closed the line.

There was maintenance, and I had to run from there up to

Marble Arch, so I was running up Oxford Street...

Like a crazy woman! "I need to buy this flat. Move out my way!"

Yes, it was a bit like that.

I was running on the road, by the buses and dodging,

jumping back on the path, to dodge the buses.

So what happened when you walked into the auction room?

Were they bidding fast and furiously?

Erm, well, there was a few that had slowed it down,

and I got there at 307, and this was 314, so...

-Oh, my goodness!

-Yeah, yeah.

-So you were right. You had a feeling in your stomach...

-Yeah, yeah.

..that something was going to go your way.

Full marks to Fay for her tenacity and actually making it to the

auction house, just in the nick of time.

She plans to replace the kitchen and bathroom, but will she sell or let?

We are going to either corporate let,

or we are going to sell the property on.

Why corporate lets?

We don't want a long-standing tenant in the property.

We would prefer that people come, they stay for a few days,

or a week or two, hopefully treat the property as their own,

and then they'll move... Obviously, go home.

-So who's going to be the person to come in, change the sheets...

-Me.

-..turn it over, so you're going to do that?

-Yes.

-It's like a top-end B&B, really.

-Yeah, yeah. It'll give me...

I'll drop the kids off at school, nursery,

and then I'll come here, cos typically with corporate lets,

they'll be going to work sort of eight o'clock in the morning,

so the property would be empty,

I'll come after the school run and change those,

and obviously the person that's then coming later on will arrive

four, five, maybe, that day, and I'll have it ready for them.

Fay hopes this project won't take any longer than six months,

and she's set aside a pretty generous budget of £10,000

for the renovation.

The unknown factor is the work that's required on the roof,

so she's adding an additional five grand.

All eight of the building's occupants are legally

required to contribute towards a communal maintenance fund,

which would include all roofing repairs,

and this fund is controlled by a property management company.

So are you ready for a bit of a wrangle?

Because something like that doesn't happen overnight,

it doesn't come easy.

You try to get money out of eight people,

not everybody has available funds.

No, no. Well, it's down to them to do that,

down to the managing company to do that.

I've already had a few phone conversations with them, to say,

"Look, this needs to be sorted, because obviously,

"it's getting worse with every shower that we have."

Now, I know you're a busy mum. You've got a couple of kids.

I have, yes.

How are you going to find the time to do this,

and why are you doing this, Fay?

I just need to do something different, for me.

After I had my son, Jack, he's now six,

and I went on maternity leave, and I never went back to

my office job, and sitting at home, nursing him, taking care of him,

-up popped Homes Under The Hammer...

-Oh, it's our fault(!)

It's your fault! And I thought, "I can do that."

I watched people, I thought, "I CAN do that."

Quite happy to get my hands dirty, and yeah, my little girl,

Phoebe, she's three, she's at nursery now,

so the days that she's there, I will be here.

We're going to be getting tradespeople in,

where we need to.

Obviously, the electrics, the plumbing, fitting the kitchen

and the bathroom, but the rest - tidying up, sanding,

decorating - I'll be doing that, with, hopefully,

members of my family that I can rope in.

I want to give it a bit of a "wow" factor.

I want prospective buyers to think,

"Wow, I'd like to live here, this is nice."

And if we don't sell it, and we keep it and do the corporate lets,

they're going to want something a little bit special.

-Well, I'm so excited to see what you do here, Fay. Good luck.

-Thank you.

-And I really hope you get to the bottom of that roof.

-Yeah, so do we.

-Thank you.

-Lovely to meet you today. Thank you.

-Thank you.

Well, you've got to give it to her.

Fay was lucky enough to even get a bid on this property,

making it to the auction, and only in the nick of time.

I just hope she has as much good fortune with the renovation.

But, you know, I'm worried about that roof, the amount of money

it will take to repair, and the time factor involved.

Let's see how she gets on later in the programme.

'Still to come - there's potential for big profits in Crewe.'

You're getting - approximately, to make my maths easy -

-£25,000 a year?

-Yes.

-Yeah.

-We quite like the business.

While in Portsmouth, Fay's having second thoughts

-about corporate letting.

-It looks so lovely.

I don't know, I think I might want to keep it.

# I'm all about that bass, 'bout that bass, bass, bass, bass, bass. #

Earlier, it was all about Basford in Nottingham,

and this detached property, guided at £80,000-plus.

On the inside, it was a two-bed house in relatively good condition.

# Cos every inch of you is perfect, from the bottom to the top,

# Yeah, my mama, she told me, "Don't worry about size." #

Well, your mama was right,

but I wondered if this property could be any bigger,

with the neighbours having added a two-storey extension themselves.

I'm excited already!

My excitement and my idea were shared by Bobby, a doctor

and head of several private medical clinics.

He saw this £107,000 purchase as a chance to let his builder,

Carl, add value to the house,

and build a long-term property development sideline.

We've applied for planning permission, and we're thinking

if we can convert the two-bedroomed property into a four-,

because there's some space at the back,

and other people on the road have done extensions as well,

so we're quite confident we'd get the planning permission.

So the hands were prepped for major surgery,

with a 40 to 50 grand budget, and a timescale of six months.

One year on, we've come back for a look.

Well, the front has been re-rendered and painted,

plus there's some driveway improvement...

but it's the back of this property that was always going to be

the benchmark for its success.

# Something extraordinary, something real... #

Inside the new two-storey extension is a vastly expanded kitchen,

with designer marble floor and top-of-the-range units.

The extension goes out the back, and out the side of the new living area,

incorporating the old dining room, demonstrating the spaciousness.

The existing living room has been modernised,

but there are more changes upstairs.

The bedrooms have been freshened up, while the bathroom,

already quite nice, has jumped up a gear.

# Something extraordinary. #

Away from the de-cluttered landing runs a corridor to two

brand-new bedrooms, one with an en-suite.

What an extraordinary change.

Surely a first project of this scale really challenged Bobby

and his team?

Well, surprisingly, I found that there was very

little in the way of challenge with this renovation.

The project has probably taken a little longer than

we originally anticipated.

We thought it might take about six months,

but it took the best part of 12 months,

and the main reason for that was the fact that we

applied for planning permission,

to extend it into a four-bedroomed project, and so we were quite

prepared for the fact that it might take a couple of extra months.

So the extension to the property went both back and to the side,

so that the volume of the internal area was increased.

It was essentially like a new build.

So they were quite a bit over their timescale,

as they worked with planning on this substantial project.

The standard throughout is very high,

with materials sourced from builder Carl's native Poland,

but how much did this high-end finish cost them?

Originally, we thought that the project might cost us

around £60,000, and in the end, we spent about £100,000 on it.

You can see where their 100 grand has gone, with no expense

spared, but what does he plan to do with the property now?

I thought that we would get it valued when it was completed,

which we have done, independently, and given that valuation,

I'm tempted just to keep it.

It's not a project that we were looking to turn over

particularly.

With the appreciation that's likely to come in the next few years

in the housing market, I think we could do worse than just to keep it.

So, Bobby thinks hanging onto this property for a

while might be the best way forward,

based on his independent evaluation,

but will two local estate agents agree?

I suspect the agent who saw it before the renovation might

be in for a bit of a surprise.

It's an amazing transformation.

I actually had to check whether it was the right property.

The standard is incredibly high.

Even the little things, like the chrome plates, sockets,

and overall, it's a very, very lovely property.

Standard of the finish of this property is really high,

and it's really good quality.

Bobby paid £107,000 for the property at auction,

and his 100 grand spent, it means a total outlay of 207 grand.

The agents believe it could command a top rental

figure of £1,000 per calendar month, giving Bobby just under a 6% yield.

Not bad, but not amazing.

So would it be better on the sales market?

I can believe that this house can

achieve the sales value of £210,000.

My feelings are you're looking within

the region of £250,000 to £260,000.

Well, they're similar to an independent valuation

we had done last week, where we were thinking around the 225-250 mark.

Well, nobody said property prices were a perfect science,

but that 250-grand evaluation would give Bobby a pre-tax

profit of 43 grand, but this wasn't just about money for Bobby.

It was a practice run for his builder,

Carl, as they move on to bigger and better things.

On the back of this development,

we've just now purchased some land with a school on it,

and we're looking at converting the school into 25 units, which is

a much bigger project, but this development here has given me

the stepping board to actually know what development entails,

and it's given me confidence to be able to do a bigger project.

For today's final property, I'm visiting Crewe in Cheshire,

a town built on the massive expansion of the railway

network in the mid-19th century.

Nowadays, the local economy is more diverse,

but engineering still provides significant employment in the area.

# Trains and boats and planes were passing by... #

Well, this street is a real classic for houses that reflect the working

status of the people who would have owned them in previous times.

From slightly smaller terraces, to the one I'm here to see.

And very impressive it is, too. £63,000 was the guide price.

Three bedrooms. Obviously needs a bit of work. Let's have a look.

Ooh, nice bit of tiling on the entrance porch, there.

Then an inner door. That's such a good design feature, isn't it?

Keeps all the noise and the cold out.

Into your little entrance corridor,

which has good stairs going up to the bedrooms there, and then through

to your main living accommodation, which is fairly classic.

Large reception room to the front.

Bay windows, which is absolutely gorgeous.

It's dual-aspect,

with this very classic sliding door between the two.

to this rear room here.

Again, loads of light coming in, lots of space,

and obviously it's going to be in need of a good old clean

and a good old sort-out, but I'm liking what I'm seeing.

And then a very traditional design from there,

through to your kitchen area.

The kitchen areas in these properties are always

a little bit on the small side.

You know, it could be a little bit bigger, and perhaps

there's potential to extend a bit into the cupboard there,

but overall,

what I'm seeing is a house that just needs upgrading, uplifting, and then

you've got a really great place.

I have a real soft spot for these Edwardian terraced houses.

Plenty of original details have survived,

which makes wandering around here a real delight.

So, upstairs, and a good-sized space, as you might have expected.

Reasonable sized bedroom at the back there, and there's a cute bathroom.

Look at that.

Probably one of the earliest kind of electric showers that was ever made.

Yeah. I think you probably want to have that definitely well

checked out by somebody electrically qualified, cos I wouldn't

necessarily want to turn it on and then get in the shower. Bzzk!

But anyway, nice-sized middle bedroom, original fireplace there,

which is really lovely, and there's just loads of stuff to discover.

Rip that little bit of hardboard off there.

I bet there's a really nice banister underneath it.

And then a real joy as you walk towards the front of the property.

A nice fireplace in this absolutely gorgeous master bedroom.

You've got the bay window there, erm... Yeah, it's brilliant.

That isn't too good, though. A bit of a nasty crack.

Hopefully nothing too serious, so you'd want to investigate that,

but all in all, it's a really

well-proportioned lovely, lovely house.

And all for a guide price of £63,000.

Spend, oh, let's say 25 grand doing it up,

and you've still got change out of £100,000. So, that's the inside.

I'm off to catch a bit of sunshine.

Well, at the back of the property, nothing untoward.

Those cracks don't seem to appear on the outside,

so hopefully just a bit of minor settlement inside.

The brickwork seems to be in nice condition.

Obviously, you're looking again at replacing the windows,

but apart from that, yeah, no, it seems pretty good.

The roof looks all right.

As a bonus, you've got this little bit of garden,

and that all-important access to a little

sort of roadway at the back there, an alleyway,

so you could theoretically bring in a car

and have off-street parking here, which is what some people do, but

all in all, it's just adding to what is already a really great house.

And hopefully the agent from the auction house who sold

the property will agree with me, but first he's going to give us

some information about the local housing stock.

There's a variety of terraced properties up and down this road.

These particular ones had lovely mosaic-tiled halls

and quarry-tiled floors, and quite decorative coving and ceiling roses,

so these would have been probably the managers'

or the supervisors' properties when they were first built.

Does need a lot of work doing to it.

Damp course, rewiring, kitchen, bathroom.

There's quite a bit of money to be spent on the property,

but it's got a lot of potential.

And how much could this house be worth, once renovated?

If the property was fully modernised,

I'd certainly expect this property to reach in the region of £110,000.

And rental valuation?

From a rental point of view, I would say the property would

achieve around £550 per calendar month.

Well, the more times I come to Crewe, the more I think there

really are some very interesting investment opportunities here.

It's a lot of house for that £63,000 guide price.

Yeah. Let's see who was lucky to get this when it went under the hammer.

In fact, on auction day, the guide price was changed to £70,000,

but the auctioneer started below that.

What say 65 to start me?

65 bid, thank you. It's £65,000. £66,000.

67. 68.

69. 70.

It's no surprise that bidding was brisk for this one.

-We rejoin with the price at £78,000.

-78.

Shaking his head. Still with you, sir, at £78,000.

Another 500, anywhere else?

If not, £78,000 once...

New bidder, 78 and a half. 79.

And a half.

No? At 79 and a half, by the door, at £79,500.

80, anywhere else?

80.

No? At 80, on the wall, to my left, at £80,000. 500, anywhere else?

If not, £80,000 once...

..£80,000 twice...

..third and final time at £80,000...

You bought it, sir. Well done.

Sneaking in with that last-minute bid were property developers

Anthony, here on the right, and Phil.

We've met them before on the show, as they specialise in developing

and leasing houses of multiple occupancy, or HMOs.

Is that the plan for this house?

I met them back at the property to find out.

# We're a couple of swells, we stop at the best hotels. #

Anthony, Phil, good to see you, again!

-You have been busy, haven't you?

-Yes.

So tell me why you wanted to buy this house.

Well, this is a house in an area that we currently operate, you know?

We have other buy-to-let properties in the area,

so we're quite familiar with these streets,

and this one attracted us because it's a large-sized house,

needs lots of work, which we're quite happy to take on...

-Yeah, absolutely.

-..and, yeah, it lends itself quite nicely

to the type of profile, the tenants, that we currently have.

And tell me what you think about Crewe,

because I've been really impressed by Crewe as a sort of place, really.

Yeah, it's growing quite quickly, really.

A lot of industry is coming to Crewe.

I think the transport links to the motorways is very good, and some of

the major employers around here are continuing to expand,

and we've seen it sort of develop, haven't we?

Yeah, absolutely, and there's some great properties.

And the prices are still at a good level within Crewe at the moment.

-Yeah.

-And, coupled with the tenant demand, it's a good place to invest,

in that sense.

On this project, Phil and Anthony are actually

working on behalf of an investor, who's putting up the capital.

The guys will manage the property on behalf of the investor

for a fixed percentage fee, but first they'll have to refurbish it.

So tell me what you're going to do to this one, then.

In terms of this one,

-we're going to create it as a shared house for professional tenants.

-OK.

-So we'll effectively be creating five bedrooms...

-Oh, wow.

..which we'll then let on a sort of individual room basis,

so there'll be a communal kitchen-diner,

two of the bedrooms upstairs,

we're going to look to put en suites in, so that they've got more

self-contained facilities, in that sense,

-and then this front reception room will be a bedroom as well...

-Right.

..and we'll also add a corridor in and place another

bedroom in the sort of second reception room.

So is there a demand for that kind of accommodation around here?

There is, yeah, yeah.

We've got a list of people that are looking for that exact

type of accommodation.

They're professional working people,

sometimes working on a contract basis, sometimes working longer...

More permanent basis, but the contract staff demand seems

to be increasing with the likes of some of the local employers.

Now, splitting it up into rooms like that can be a very profitable

thing to do in terms of rental projections.

What kind of numbers are you looking at?

-Well, these rooms will let somewhere between £350 and £400...

-Each?

-Each.

-Yeah.

-So you're looking at £2,000 a month, ish?

-Ish, gross, yeah.

-That's pretty healthy. That's 26 grand a year.

-Yes.

-Right. So what...

Obviously got costs and things to factor into that,

but let's start with that as a headline figure.

So you paid 80 for it.

What do you think it's going to cost you to do the renovation?

So we're looking at around £25,000, just because it's basically

a shell at the moment, so we need new double glazing, central heating.

We're obviously adding a lot of facilities,

and we've then got the shared accommodation fire requirements,

in terms of fire doors, smoke alarms, all those elements.

-Right.

-So we think probably around £25,000.

So you'd be in it for 105 or so, 110 if you factor in those bits

-and pieces...

-That's right.

..and you're getting, approximately, to make my maths easy,

-£25,000 a year?

-Yes.

-Yeah.

-That's a massive yield, isn't it?

-Yes, yes.

-Yeah, works well.

THEY LAUGH

20 quid, then? 24 for that?

-Yeah, yeah.

-We quite like the business.

-Yeah, no kidding!

# And I've been taking care of business... #

Impressive figures, but of course, that assumes that they're

going to get 100% occupancy 100% of the time

and no unforeseen circumstances.

'But talking of time, how quickly can they turn this place around?'

So, you mentioned the budget, what about the timescale?

I think we're probably looking about two months to turn everything around.

-Right.

-To get the finished product and actually have tenants then in situ.

-Brilliant. And then on to the next one, I guess?

-Yes.

-Yes.

Yeah, we're running a couple at the moment, so, yes, it's a case

of moving tradesmen and contractors around and keeping things moving.

-Well, listen, congratulations.

-Thank you.

-Good luck with it.

-Great, thank you.

-I look forward to seeing how you get on.

Well, Anthony and Phil certainly seem to have come up with

a really interesting business idea, don't they?

How will they go on sorting out this place in Crewe?

You can find out later in the show.

Well, when it comes to taking, property projects,

it can take a lot of energy, patience,

oh, and most importantly, the ability to bounce back when things go wrong.

Yes, so we've seen how one of our buyers got on,

what about the others?

Yes, stick around and you will find out.

Back to the south coast we go and the city of Portsmouth.

It was this top-floor two-bedroom flat that I was here to see,

and after a lung-bursting climb up the stairs,

I was pleasantly surprised by what I found.

The flat is in really good condition.

Not what I was expecting at all.

It's got a great feel to the place.

You can even see the Isle of Wight out there.

But no top-floor abode would be complete without something

to worry about.

Now, it's obvious there's been some rainwater coming in,

maybe a few of the tiles are loose, but whoever is looking at

buying a property like this should investigate that further.

And being a communal property, any external work would need to

be estimated, priced and tended, and then the cost split eight ways,

a process that was a potential concern to new owner, Faye.

So are you ready for a bit of a wrangle?

Because something like that doesn't happen overnight,

it doesn't come easy, you try to get money out of eight people

-not everybody has available for months.

-No, no.

Well, it's down to them to do that, down to the managing company to do that.

I've already had a few phone conversations with them

to say, "Look, this needs to be sorted,"

because obviously, it's getting worse with every shower that we have.

Bought jointly with her husband for £101,000,

Faye planned to renovate the flat

then either sell or lease to corporate clients.

With a budget of £10,000,

plus a contingency of five grand for the roof, Faye set herself a

timescale of 3-6 months to complete the work,

barring any unexpected delays.

Well, unfortunately, delays there has been, but finally,

a year and eight months later, we're back to see the finished results.

Things are looking pretty smart up here,

but the dazzling kitchen takes pride of place.

Here in the kitchen, we've done new flooring, complete new flooring,

new floorboards, made that solid, so we've put the tiles down.

We've put a brand-new kitchen in here,

including built-in appliances, rejigging it slightly from

the old kitchen that was here to create more cupboard space.

I love the quality of the kitchen

and I especially love the slow-close.

Slow-closing drawers could be a metaphor for this project.

Things progressed at a glacial pace.

Faye was keen to have everything complete within six months,

but it's taken an additional 14 months to get to this point.

And the delay is all down to something called Section 20.

The Section 20 is something that the freeholders are in charge of.

As a leaseholder, you don't really have any control over it.

It's things that relate to works on the building itself,

the external building.

And with needing things like the roof and the tiling

and everything like that doing, it's going to be a roofer involved,

but also guttering needs doing, external timber works,

there's the odd tiles that need doing.

And because we're quite high up, a load of scaffolding needs to go up,

so there's quite a lot of planning and expense to it.

With uncertainty over just what kind of work was going to take place

on the roof, Faye sensibly postponed the refurbishment until she received

word from building's management that it was safe to proceed.

After all, there's no point in plastering ceilings twice.

Ironically, it turns out that the leak in the bathroom

had nothing to do with the roof.

OK, so here in the bathroom we've kept what

we can in terms of tiling and stuff. We've changed the bath.

New radiator.

We fixed the leak in the ceiling,

which just turned out to be the vent pipe for the toilet.

Put new pipework up there and that's all dry,

that's all rectified now and I wish we'd done that a lot, lot sooner,

because it really was very simple to fix.

'Faye used professional tradespeople for the big jobs,

'but then listed the family to help decorate.'

My mum has been amazing.

We've had some really long nights, we got loads done.

And my sister's just been fantastic, too.

She's really helped, done a lot of the ceiling work,

so her shoulders are probably aching!

SHE LAUGHS

Has all that free labour helped Faye's budget of £15,000?

It's come out at £14,990, so we've gone over on the refurb,

the Section 20 was under, but, yes, so pretty much used it all.

When we first met, Faye thought she might sell,

but seemed keener on renting to corporate clients.

So what has she finally decided to do?

My husband and I, in discussing what we're going to do

with the property, sort of established

we weren't going to do the corporate lets

and we're definitely going to go down the sale route.

And that's what I plan to do now.

But now the carpets are down, it look so lovely! I don't know.

I think I might want to keep it!

It's been a long time in the making,

but Faye is thrilled with how her project has turned out.

Will two Portsmouth estate agents be equally enamoured with her work?

First impressions, it's really fresh, clean,

it's been finished to a good standard. The only concern I'd

have would be the single glazing at the front of the property.

Maybe a little bit noisy on the bedrooms.

However, I don't think that's going to stop anyone buying this property.

Property's been done to a very high standard, kitchen is good quality,

it'd be perfect for the rental market or first-time buyer market.

Well, they both think this property is a winner.

But will that be reflected in their valuations?

Let's start with rental values.

I think the lowest amount that you should be

looking for is £675 per calendar month.

As the sort of highest mark, you could be trying £725 per calendar month.

For the current owner, should they put this on the rental market,

she'd be asking for around £795 per calendar month.

Those rental figures are good, especially the higher one.

And it's sort of the figure we were looking to, my husband and I, round about the 750 mark.

But, unfortunately, that's not something we really want to do. But good to know.

So, as rental is no longer on the agenda,

what about the sales values?

In current market conditions, I think

the current owner could be asking for a price in the region of £155,000.

I think a sensible figure would be £145,000.

Well, we paid 101,000 at auction and spent just under 15,000,

including the Section 20.

So, yeah. Yeah, I'm really, really pleased with that, yeah.

A sale at £155,000 would leave Faye with

a profit of £39,000 before any tax and fees.

So, will she be keen to do this kind of project again?

Yeah, I'd definitely do it again.

The fact that Section 20 has taken so long has not put me off at all.

Because it was always something there in the background,

ticking over, to fill in my time when the children were at school, so, yeah,

it's worked out really, really well and I'd definitely do it again.

Right property, right place, I'd do it again.

It's time to catch up with what's happening in Crewe,

where earlier, I took a look around this three-bed Edwardian

terraced house with a guide price of 63,000.

Although there was a complete overhaul required,

the massive rooms and period detail immediately warmed my heart.

Overall, what I'm seeing is a house that just needs upgrading,

uplifting and then, you've got a really great place.

In fact, you could say it was a cracking property.

But unfortunately, upstairs, it really WAS a cracking property.

That isn't too good, though. A bit of a nasty crack.

Hopefully nothing too serious, so you'd want to investigate that.

Keen to get cracking on this property were Phil,

here on the left, and Anthony, who paid £80,000 at auction

and plan to turn it into a HMO, or a House Of Multiple Occupancy.

So, is there a demand for that kind of accommodation around here?

There is, yeah, yeah.

We've got a list of people that are looking for that exact

type of accommodation.

And when he did the sums, it wasn't

hard to notice that splitting this house into individual rented

rooms could prove to be very lucrative.

And you're getting approximately, to make my maths easy, £25,000 a year?

-Yes.

-Yeah.

That's a massive yield, isn't it?

-We quite like the business.

-Yeah, no kidding!

With their eyes firmly set on the HMO prize, we left Phil and Anthony

to work out how best to configure this house

with their £25,000 budget.

They plan to have rooms ready to let out within eight to ten weeks.

How successful have they been?

Well, we've come back eight months later to find out.

Well, I'm sure you'll agree, this is an amazing transformation.

The guys have kept to the plan of having five bedrooms,

three upstairs, two of which have en suites and two downstairs.

There was originally a through lounge diner,

so we're separated that off to create a bedroom at the front

and an extra bedroom behind and put a corridor in.

We've then put a brand-new kitchen in,

knocked through the back to create a downstairs toilet

and a laundry room where we've put the boiler.

Upstairs, we've added two new en suites, new bathroom

and then really sort of full plaster and decoration all the way through.

This was a thorough renovation, requiring new central heating,

total rewiring and new double glazing throughout.

But Phil and Anthony have also managed to experiment a little

by adding a few new things along the way.

The feature walls that we've put into this property in the bedrooms...

Quite a new thing for us, that, and it seems to have gone well.

The people that we've shown around initially have liked the rooms

and a couple of the rooms have been taken already,

so, so far, that seems to have worked out well.

I think it's nice to have done en-suites upstairs.

I think given the size of the house and its five bedroom,

it's good to get those two en-suites up there.

We're very proud, I think, aren't we, of this one?

-Yeah, definitely, yeah.

-And it would be a nice one to have in the mix.

Yeah, we're just really pleased with the finish of it all and I think

it's created five very nice rooms for professional people to rent.

Yeah.

Those beds look very inviting, but I wonder

if there was any sleep lost over the worrying cracks upstairs?

We looked at those, we took the plaster away and to be honest,

they were just surface cracks, really,

there wasn't anything structurally wrong with the property, so...

Movement over the years. And the last time the property had been sold was 1944,

so there's going to be a little bit of movement in that time,

but the plasterer has taken everything back to breaking in parts and we've

reskimmed and things as well, so, it's got a nice finish to it now.

It's taken 16 weeks to get that nice finish,

which is double their original estimate.

That was partly due to a delayed start whilst

we finished off another project.

And then really just juggling the works alongside other projects, so...

Yeah, couple of additional ones, wasn't it?

Yeah, that's it. So because we had some other projects that we needed to turn round quickly,

we've just phased this one over a slightly longer timeframe.

So, how much has all this cost?

We were originally thinking it would be around 25,000.

We'll probably closer to 30 by the time it's all finished with

the furnishings and everything.

But that's a reflection, really, of the fact that we've done it to a higher standard.

We've furnished it to a high standard and with the en-suites

and everything, the extra additions, equally that is reflected

in the rent that we'll receive from the property, so we're seeing

that uplift in terms of the rental prices for the rooms as a result.

Well, if I was giving out prizes for the best-dressed rooms,

I'm certain Phil and Anthony would have the competition sewn up.

But in this instance, it's all about the money,

so we've asked two local property experts to come along and

marvel at the soft furnishings and give us their professional opinions.

The changes are really good,

they've done a really nice job on the property.

Ideal for what they've done it for, obviously,

they've turned it into a multiple occupancy building

and it's a great location for that type of thing as well.

They've done a nice standard of finish to the property,

it's nice and light, I like the fact that they've used

a lot of white, but added a bit of interest with feature walls.

So far, Phil and Anthony have spent 110,000 on behalf

of the investor and the plan is to rent the units out.

But what could the whole building be worth

if sold in its newly refurbished state?

If the property was to come onto

the market as it is, we'd be looking at around £125,000.

For a resale on this I would expect to sell

the property for £130,000.

That could mean a potential pre-tax

profit of between £15,000 - £20,000 for the investor.

But of course, this is a long-term rental machine, and both

agents reckon on a total rental income of around £2,000 per month.

In terms of a monthly rental,

-it's around 2,100 gross rent for the property.

-Yeah.

Of course, that figure's based on full occupancy

and equates to a monster yield of 23%.

So, let's get the final thoughts of two very happy property developers.

This property has been a superb property for us

in really doing the full refurb and putting our own mark on the property

as well and creating something quite different to how it began.

Yeah, and I think we're now left with a high-end HMO

that will achieve really good rental yields.

Did today's trials and tribulations inspire you?

Or were you watching from behind the couch?

Yes, buying property can sometimes be a little bit scary,

even a bit of a horror story.

Oh, but it usually ends up with a happy ending!

So join us next time for more Homes Under The Hammer.

-We'll see

-you then. Bye-bye.

-Goodbye.

-Bye.